1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to systems and methods of data collection and obtaining respondents for data collection. More particularly, the invention relates to systems and methods of conducting surveys and collecting information.
2. Background of the Related Art
Surveys and other data collection techniques have been used extensively in the field of marketing research. Traditional forms of surveying or data collection are plagued with many problems, at least two of which result in severe inefficiencies. First, traditional surveys, such as telephone surveys or face-to-face surveys conducted in public places such as shopping malls produce a very small number of participants relative to the number of people solicited. Further, many of those who are contacted find such unsolicited contact offensive, which could result in negative publicity for the product or organization for which the survey is being conducted.
Second, the low response rate to a traditional survey is compounded by the fact that a large percentage of the people completing the survey may not be members of a desired target audience.
As a result, traditional surveying or data collecting techniques are expensive and time consuming relative to the amount of good quality relevant data collected.